What is the best way to hook up HDTV to all other components?

The dream of having the High Definition Television system you’ve been dreaming for so long does not end with the act of purchasing it. After giving up your hard-earned money to the appliance store and finding that perfect spot in the house to set up your unit, you would need to plan on finally installing your newly purchased HDTV. However, installing the system may prove to be more hard work rather than the effort you spent in saving the money to buy the unit. To make your life easier and get your HDTV up and running ASAP, here are some HDTV tips to guide you in hooking up your HDTV:

First step: Do you have the cables ready? Make sure that that you have the proper cables to hook up to your new HDTV. Make a list to see that you have the following cables ready:

ANT-IN cable

DVI-D/HDCP IN cable

Component Video In or Video In or cables

These cables should be easily plugged as they should be indicated in the TV’s user guide or manual. Refer to the portion below for a more detailed description of the cables.

Second step:

Connect the coaxial cable to the back of your cable box.

Run a video cable (or an S-Video cable if you do not have any video cables) to the TV.

Third step:

Locate a digital/analog audio cable, or analog audio cable.

From the cable box, connect the audio cable to the TV.

Fourth step:

It’s time to connect all other components including DVD and VCR players.

Try using all digital audio and digital video connections.

Fifth step:

Using a splitter, connect multiple components such as cable box to DVD or TV to VCR. This will make sure that you don’t run out of chords.

Adjust the brightness, contrast and color settings of your HDTV.

To be clear on the hierarchy of cables that you should use, here is a list of the cables from best to worst:

1. To handle audio and video digitally, use the HDMI cable. 2. Like the HDMI cable, the DVI cable is in charge of the digital video signal (similar to the function of HDMI), although a separate connection is required for audio. 3. The usual 3 RCA-type cables grouped together, labeled R, G and B is the Component Video cable. This still compliant with HD resolution although it primarily handles the analog video signal. Like the DVI cable, this requires a separate connection for the sound. 4. The S-Video cable requires different luma and chroma video signals on the cable, so it is fine for average sources but it does not support HD resolution. It also requires separate audio cables. 5. The Composite Video cable is a typical RCA-type single connector for video, which doesn’t support HD signal, but will be okay for SD sources . This requires a separate audio cable as well. 6. Lastly, a coax Cable is the worst possible way to connect a source to a display device. This is a screw-on type connector which is used in the middle of a cable box and a Television set.